A recent disclosure of Justice Department paperwork has brought Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigative activities back into public scrutiny, focusing on allegations that his team accessed private text messages belonging to dozens of sitting and former members of Congress. The documents suggest this review occurred without the necessary approval from a safeguard team specifically designed to protect privileged material during federal investigations.
"I received records [from] DOJ confirming Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed the contents of text [messages] sent by 44 members of Congress. I’m one of the 44." — Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, made these documents public on Tuesday. Their acquisition of the paperwork followed whistleblowers coming forward with information related to a broad federal inquiry known as "Arctic Frost." According to the records, the message contents of 44 members of Congress were examined. The roster of affected lawmakers includes a majority of Republicans but also several Democrats.
Among the senators identified in the records are Grassley himself, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley (R-MO), and the late Lindsey Graham, alongside Democrat Cory Booker (D-NJ). On the House side, Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH) is listed alongside Democrats Adam Smith (D-WA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Also included is former Representative Karen Bass (D-CA), who currently serves as Los Angeles’s mayor. Senator Grassley publicly confirmed his own inclusion in the group, stating on social media platform X: "I received records [from] DOJ confirming Jack Smith’s investigative team reviewed the contents of text [messages] sent by 44 members of Congress. I’m one of the 44."
This latest batch of records distinguishes itself from earlier disclosures, which primarily concerned subpoenas for lawmakers’ phone metadata. These newer documents, by contrast, involve the actual substance of messages retrieved from devices used within the first President Donald Trump White House. Rather than seeking this material directly from the lawmakers themselves or their cellular carriers, investigators obtained the information through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Prosecutors operating under Smith's direction sought messages spanning the period from October 2020 through January 20, 2021. Their request specifically targeted phones belonging to President Donald Trump and a substantial list of his top aides, including Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, Rudy Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway, and Mike Pence.
A timeline embedded within the released paperwork illustrates the rapid transfer of this sensitive material. National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern notified senior prosecutor Thomas Windom shortly after noon on August 21, 2023, that 54 spreadsheets containing the requested messages had been located. Windom reportedly downloaded all the material within half an hour. Barely twenty minutes later, he was sharing specific excerpts with colleagues, while other staffers facilitated the transfer of files into shared storage and the team’s review platform.
Justice Department investigators later acknowledged procedural irregularities in writing. A four-page summary of the department’s findings concluded that Smith’s team "apparently bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages." This finding stands in direct tension with written protocols also included in the document release, which explicitly mandated a filter attorney’s sign-off before any such material could be accessed. Further complicating the situation, a June 11, 2023, internal email revealed a software glitch that allowed investigators to view certain search-warrant material before the official review process had been completed. Fixing this permissions error was internally flagged as "the top priority item."
Senator Grassley did not temper his reaction to these findings. "Jack Smith’s criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes," he stated. Senator Johnson offered an equally sharp assessment, characterizing the situation as "yet another grotesque example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department."
Significant redactions persist throughout the released files, with numerous phone numbers, names, and segments of message content blacked out. The count of 44 affected lawmakers is derived from the DOJ’s own internal assessment, rather than a complete, unredacted public record.
The timing of these revelations revives serious questions about Smith’s sworn testimony from December 17, 2025, when he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. During that appearance, Smith denied that his team had ever read the contents of congressional text messages. When pressed on whether his office pursued a warrant for the content of lawmakers’ texts, Smith replied, "No, I don’t recall that." He maintained that investigators had collected "just toll records." A follow-up question directly asked whether those toll records included any text-message content. "No," Smith answered, explaining that toll records only capture details such as phone numbers and the timing and length of calls, not the substance of messages. The Washington Examiner sought comment from an attorney representing Smith, but no response was provided.
